GM Will Spend $100 Million on New Presses for Stamping Plant

08/01/96

Reuters reported that General Motors announced that it will spend $100 million to install two new transfer presses at its metal stamping plant in Pontiac, Michigan. The new presses will be installed in 1998 and are part of GM's $850 million program to modernize 13 North American stamping plants.

Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Ltd (IHI) will supply the presses to GM, at a cost of $25 million apiece. GM has agreed to buy 6 of the presses from IHI for their modernization program; in addition to putting two of them into the plant in Pontiac, GM will install two at its minivan plant in Doraville, GA and two more at its full size van plant in Wentzville, MO.

The installation of the two presses in Pontiac will ensure that operations at the Pontiac stamping plant--which employs 2,500 workers-- continues. The stamping facility is the last major plant still operating in a complex that once included a foundry, a car assembly plant and others. GM still assembles full size pickup trucks in Pontiac and recently consolidated its engineering operations in a new facility there. Within the next two years, however, headquarters for the Pontiac-GMC division will move from Pontiac to Detroit, as GM consolidates its marketing divisions at its Renaissance Center headquarters.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel